Accepting the Challenges: The Emerging Role of Grand Rapids Community College in Preparation of New Teachers

In 1992, Grand Rapids Community College (GRCC) was one of six community colleges invited to participate in a NSF initiative to improve science and mathematics teaching within the state of Michigan. This initiative included all public teacher preparation institutions in the state. GRCC has responded to this challenge by: (1) designing a new course in Physical Science for future teachers; (2) creating the GRCC Teacher Education Pathway and the GRCC Teacher Education Center; (3) forming a local alliance with Grand Rapids Public Schools and Grand Valley State University for the purpose of recruiting and supporting minorities in mathematics and science teaching

Environmental Policy and International Competitiveness in a Globalizing World: Challenges for Low-Income Countries in the UNECE Region.

This paper addresses a set of conflicting national objectives, that between economic competitiveness and environmental quality. In lower-income economies, the perceived benefits of improved environmental quality may be valued less than in richer economies while the perceived opportunity costs of abatement or compliance may be valued higher especially when they impact employment levels or result in lower wages and profits. There is also the fear that more stringent standards might negatively impact foreign investment as multinationals seek out locations where operating costs are low. As such, these countries are therefore quite concerned about mandating environmental regulations that could impose significant costs on their enterprises and thereby reduce their global competitiveness. In addition there is a free rider problem regarding transboundary pollution as a country can benefit from the higher environmental standards negotiated amongst its neighbours while avoiding all the costs by deciding not to participate themselves. This paper examines environmental policy in the former transition economies. In these countries environmental institutions, especially the government ministries, are weak, regulations are often inadequate, and enforcement efforts need to be improved. At the same time these economies attach a high priority to increasing living standards and view that this can only be achieved by increasing their global competitiveness in a number of non-traditional industries. Nevertheless it is argued that high environmental standards are only a minor factor in determining cost competitiveness for most industries and locational decisions for multinationals. Even to the degree that they might be a competitive disadvantage in the short-run, they can actually turn out to be an advantage in the longer-term as they promote technological upgrading, the efficient use of resources, and can reduce adjustment costs involved with future trade policy initiatives or integration into production-sharing networks. In addition there are other benefits external to the firm including improved public health, increased tourism and additional recreational resources. Furthermore, the costs of undoing degradation, which will be desired at some future date as national incomes rise, can be avoided altogether. Thus in essence, when these dynamic factors are combined with the social benefits, the real costs of setting high environmental standards are much less than what their current costs might suggest.competitiveness, Europe, transition economies, environmental policy, climate change, sustainable development

Self-regulation of the reconnecting current layer in relativistic pair plasma reconnection

We investigate properties of the reconnecting current layer in relativistic pair plasma reconnection. We found that the current layer self-regulates its thickness when the current layer runs out current carriers, and so relativistic reconnection retains a fast reconnection rate. Constructing a steady state Sweet-Parker model, we discuss conditions for the current sheet expansion. Based on the energy argument, we conclude that the incompressible assumption is invalid in relativistic Sweet-Parker reconnection. The guide field cases are more incompressible than the anti-parallel cases, and we find a more significant current sheet expansion.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal (to appear in vol. 685

Financial intermediation in the pre-consolidated banking sector in Nigeria

This paper uses unique bank-by-bank balance sheet and income statement information to investigate the intermediation efficiency in the Nigerian pre-consolidated banking sector during 2000-05. The author analyzes whether the Central Bank of Nigeria's policy of recent banking consolidation can be justified and rationalized by looking at the determinants of spreads. A spread decomposition and panel estimations show that the reform of the banking sector could be the first step to raise the intermediation efficiency of the Nigerian banking sector. The author finds that larger banks have enjoyed lower overhead costs, increased concentration in the banking sector has not been detrimental to the spreads, both increased holdings of liquidity and capital might have led to lower spreads in 2005, and a stable macroeconomic environment is conducive to a more efficient channeling of savings to productive investments.Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Theory&Research,Financial Intermediation,Financial Crisis Management&Restructuring,Investment and Investment Climate

Logistics real estate markets: indicators of structural change, linking land use and freight transport

The system of physical distribution that comprises transport and logistics, warehousing and wholesale, is an ideal indicator of structural change. Distribution and logistics have developed dynamically, with respect to new technologies, corporate restructuring, and a changing market environment. Whereas traditional logistics were characterized primarily by the demand of manufacturing customers for the shipment of bulk-commodities, modern production and service systems require frequent deliveries over great distances, with high inventory turnovers instead of storage. As a consequence, the locational profiles of distribution firms have changed as well, both at a large-scale level and within metropolitan regions. Based on recent findings of the European Warehousing Index, the paper points out how the European system of goods movement has changed in terms of regional distribution markets and warehousing location. Secondly, the consequences of locational dynamics within metropolitan regions are considered. The dominance of the truck and the suburbanisation of large distribution centres raise serious concern about logistics management, traffic reduction and locational policy. Referring to selected places such as the Ruhr Area, Hamburg or Berlin-Brandenburg, the paper demonstrates how critical the relationship between cities and goods distribution is becoming, with regard both to the regional economy and the urban environment. Is there a chance for regional, spatially oriented management of supply chains? In the case of the Ruhr Area, it is also questioned whether a certain 'knowledge milieu' (logistics research, applied sciences) may contribute to this goal. The particular benefits of investigating logistics real estate markets are fourfold: - They allow for a precise insight into regionally differentiated developments. - They connect the system of 'flows' with material 'space'. - They demonstrate that structural change is by no means neutral for the environment, regarding specific transport and land use implications of distribution. - They represent the emergence of new players in land use planning and policy (i.e. developers), thus shaping the system of political regulation.

Nonconvex notions of regularity and convergence of fundamental algorithms for feasibility problems

We consider projection algorithms for solving (nonconvex) feasibility problems in Euclidean spaces. Of special interest are the Method of Alternating Projections (MAP) and the Douglas-Rachford or Averaged Alternating Reflection Algorithm (AAR). In the case of convex feasibility, firm nonexpansiveness of projection mappings is a global property that yields global convergence of MAP and for consistent problems AAR. Based on (\epsilon, \delta)-regularity of sets developed by Bauschke, Luke, Phan and Wang in 2012, a relaxed local version of firm nonexpansiveness with respect to the intersection is introduced for consistent feasibility problems. Together with a coercivity condition that relates to the regularity of the intersection, this yields local linear convergence of MAP for a wide class of nonconvex problems,Comment: 22 pages, no figures, 30 reference

The total mass of super-Brownian motion upon exiting balls and Sheu's compact support condition

We study the total mass of a d-dimensional super-Brownian motion as it first exits an increasing sequence of balls. The process of the total mass is a time-inhomogeneous continuous-state branching process, where the increasing radii of the balls are taken as the time parameter. We are able to characterise its time-dependent branching mechanism and show that it converges, as time goes to infinity, towards the branching mechanism of the total mass of a one-dimensional super-Brownian motion as it first crosses above an increasing sequence of levels. Our results allow us to identify the compact support criterion given in Sheu (1994) as a classical Grey condition (1974) for the aforementioned limiting branching mechanism.Comment: 28 pages, 2 figure

Suppression of collisionless magnetic reconnection in asymmetric current sheets

Using fully kinetic simulations, we study the suppression of asymmetric reconnection in the limit where the diamagnetic drift speed >> Alfven speed and the magnetic shear angle is moderate. We demonstrate that the slippage between electrons and the magnetic flux facilitates reconnection, and can even result in fast reconnection that lacks one of the outflow jets. Through comparing a case where the diamagnetic drift is supported by the temperature gradient with a companion case that has a density gradient instead, we identify a robust suppression mechanism. The drift of the x-line is slowed down locally by the asymmetric nature of the current sheet and the resulting tearing modes, then the x-line is run over and swallowed by the faster-moving following flux.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure